Velour is a thick, soft cloth with a short, fuzzy surface, made to look and feel like velvet but made by knitting instead of weaving, so it stretches and costs less. Because it stretches, it is used for clothes that move with the body: tracksuits, hoodies, dresses, dance and gym wear. It is also very common in furniture and in cars and trains — seat covers, sofas, and the soft lining inside jewellery boxes and instrument cases. In British English people also spell and say it 'velours' sometimes, keeping the French look. The word carries a feeling as well as a fact: to many people velour sounds a little bit 1970s or 1980s, or a little bit cheap-luxury — soft and shiny in a way that is trying to look expensive. So when a writer chooses 'velour' instead of 'velvet', they are often quietly saying 'not the real thing'. Note that velour is not the same as velvet (woven, dressier) or velveteen (cotton, woven, no stretch). Almost always a noun, but it is used in front of another noun too: a velour tracksuit, velour seats.